Class 0412

It was a lovely night for a class. What with working so much I was pretty brain dead. We work working on front crosses. Annie was being pretty good except for being distracted on one run through by the dogs who live there. I caught her and didn't let her finish. The next run through she was distracted but worked through with me.

Diva was introduced to contacts via a plank on the ground (we'd already done this at home so it was not "new" to her).

Also did some call to hand. Put dog on stay, stand behind but beside a wing. Call dog to hand. Step behind wing some, put hand out so dog is coming to hand. Teaches dog to go to hand. Progress until you are behind the wing. Then teach dog to wrap around wing to hand.

Directionals: Teach dog left and right with a wing. Stand behind wing, start by luring the dog the direction you want it to go, click 1/2 way around, treat all the way around. Work both sides and use the command, left and right. Once dog begins to offer add difficulty by starting a little further away from the wing so that it becomes a send.

Rear cross on leash....walk with bait in both hands give dog command to turn (I use back) lure with treat, turn yourself, treat with opposite hand. Add speed.

Switch and ?: Teach dog to switch sides behind you.

Also worked on some focus work on leash. Putting dogs in circle. Put dogs on sit stay. Step a stride away. Then one person would cross the circle, and sit-stay their dog in new position. Then another would go to that persons position. Then worked it with downs. Also practiced walking dog around the circle of sitting dogs.

2020 work: If you opt for 2020 contacts do tons of target work where the dog will run to a target and keep its nose to it, until released.

Class 03/29

I had to miss my class because Rod was out of town and I took Kt skating. Kt was able to have class with Diva.

They worked on tunnels, straight and curved.

Jumping Shaping: Teaching dog to jump: Kneel down beside jump. Take some bait and lure your dog over the jump, treat when dog jumps. Then just put your hand down by jump standard (about a foot from bar) and wait for dog to offer the jump -treat when your dog does. Work from both sides of the jump. Slowly raise the bar. Diva was up to 18" in one session offering the behavior very nicely.

Kt also introduced Diva to the table. Be sure to treat on table not when dog jumps off. You want the reward to be for being on the table, not getting off of it.

Class 03/15

Annie: Started off well but then shut down. Messed up start line (went around jump). Elizabeth said I shouldn't correct her. Everything needs to be fun with Annie.

Katie and Diva; Circles, front cross, spin for rear cross, tunnel, focus forward, doggie zen

Class 2 with Elizabeth

Annie and Me: There were just 3 of us in the handling class tonight. Annie was very unfocused everything but me was more interesting. We went back to the jump sequence we worked on the first night. I think I did everything I could do wrong the first run through. We broke it up into pieces and I could see the err in my ways.

How I handled it: 1-2 -I positioned Annie perpendicular to jump one so I had to stand facing jump 2 to get her to turn. Then crossed (but she of course went deep). On to 3-4-5 and Annie was gawking into the distance (there was something in one of the pens, and her focus was not on me). I tried to pull her around between 6 and 7 but that ended up with me blocking th entry of the tunnel.

Following is the course, and the line I should have taken indicated by the notes.

Advanced Handling/Foundation

Tonight Annie and I started an advanced handling class with Elizabeth Armstrong.

First we worked on having the dog jump "into you", in efforts to teach collection. Annie does this pretty well.

Then we did a course that was laid out already and found some issues.

Ideas:V start: When there are 3 jumps in a row and you only want your dog to do 2 -set them on a V start -they will not see the 3rd jump, as they arc around back to you.

Line: Look at quickest vs easiest. In this case there were 2 jumps 180 to each other then a tunnel back to the left of the landing side of jump 1. You could wrap your dog to the left around jump 2 (quickest) vs post turn around jump 2. I tended to want to handle it as a post turn but in reality it was easier to do a wrap.

270: Annie needs work on these -she doesn't want to go deep enough in the pocket to do these well. I need to offer her support through them. Perhaps try a go on so she keeps deep, keep my arm stretched out firmly.

DIVAS Class

Katie and Diva did the foundations.

They worked on restrained recall. Elizabeth held the dog...Katie walked away, and then called her to hand.

Loose leash walking

Touch: Teach them to touch a target.

Boxwork: Feet on the box: Showed us how to shape a behavior. Only work for a few minutes at a time. If the dog is "not getting" it it is OK to encourage (not lure) by putting the dog in a position that will encourage the behavior you're looking for eg in a corner so harder to get away from the box.

Katie and Diva did great - it helped they already had touched on everything.

Obedience Class 2

Tonight Annie seemed a little brighter. She is still not retrieving over jumps like she does at home.

We worked round robin style...practiced one obstacle if they were successful, moved on. Don't keep on hammering at the same thing when they do well. Annie's recalls were awesome tonight as were her stays. Her heeling (with string) was pretty decent too.

Back to Obedience

Annie and I have resumed our obedience class. I'm not sure Annie is too happy about being back at Cathy's-she sulked most of the time we were there. Oh well, she'll get over it.

Tonights exercies: Practised throwing. We learned how to hold and throw the dumbbell (hold it by the ends not the middle).

Recall/Drop: If they're not dropping, go closer, walk toward them.

Annie's retrieves and long jump were less than stellar.
Her stays were OK (she broke when she saw me again).